What happens when words like "cool" and "unique" end up describing the ordinary? Well, for one thing it can be a waste of time. Far worse is the fact that it leads to poor buying decisions.
Try this: Google "unique gifts" or "cool gifts" and see what you get. Chances are that the top searches will lead you to a lot of mundane stuff like wastepaper baskets, mugs, T-shirts, candles and novelty items. These are nice things but they aren't particularly unique. Of course a wastepaper basket made of dried flowers would be unique. But the ones that I see are made of metal, the mugs are made of ceramic, the candles are made of candle wax and the T-shirts may have clever sayings on them, but they are still T-Shirts.
One of the reasons for this is that, with search engine dominance of e-commerce, words like "cool" and "unique" can be purchased and owned. Because of the expense they are usually owned by large companies. They pay a lot of money to own these words so that when you type them into a search engine their names will pop up. But that doesn't mean that they have what you are looking for. It only means that they have been around for a while and that they can spend thousands of dollars a day to own adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc. or a combination of them. One reason that sites that top the list for "unique gifts" and "cool gifts" do not really offer a lot of unique things is because they rely on volume purchases and truly unique products do not have mass appeal.
Let's say that I want to own the words "blue bicycle" but my online store only carries red bicycles. That does not matter. As long as I pay Google or Bing or whoever enough money, I can pretty much own the words "blue bicycle" so that when someone types "blue bicycle" in a search box my store that has only red bicycles will be listed at the top. My make-believe store does this in the hopes that if you click and come to my site you will decide that a blue bicycle is just as good as a red one and buy one. More often than not you won't and you may be a little miffed about having your time wasted. There is a balancing act here that merchants have to be aware of.
This is not a condemnation of the system. This certainly is not the first time that new, small businesses have a hard time competing with large businesses. This is true online and in the bricks and mortar stores. However, it is a little different in that the ownership of words plays such an important part in online marketing.
We believe that we carry as unique of gifts and home decor products that there are. However, as of now we are on page 38 of Google. No one goes to page 38 of Google to find anything. Most people don't go past page one. There are things that we can do to improve our ranking and we will, but it will take time and as much money as we can muster.
The moral here is not that Google or Bing is "bad" or that legitimate competitors are doing something nefarious. The moral is only that if you are looking for something truly unique or cool you may have to go to page 38 before you actually do.
The author's son operates a website that specializes in unique gifts and home decor. The author actually finds this to be interesting. For a great selection of unique gifts and specialized home decor products please visit us. Also, please join us on Facebook by clicking the button at the top of our home page. We post unique facts, pictures and other fun things there.
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